Your local Family Dollar store may be no more. Parent company Dollar Tree has announced the closure of some 1,000 stores – the majority of them in the coming months, with more in the coming years.
It’s the result of a “comprehensive review” of the troubled retailer that the company initiated last fall “to address underperforming stores.” About 600 Family Dollar stores will find themselves on the immediate chopping block, to be closed in the first half of this year. As leases expire over the next several years, about 370 additional Family Dollar locations, along with 30 Dollar Tree stores, will close as well.
The company says decisions were made “based on an evaluation of current market conditions and individual store performance, among other factors.”
“We took a thoughtful and deliberate approach to address underperforming stores by considering each individual store’s performance (and) local operating environment,” CEO Rick Dreiling told investors this morning. “As we look at these stores, it was their location, the competitive environment, the quality of the facilities, the proximity to the competition, there was many, many, many factors.”
The company has not publicly identified which specific locations will be closing – so watch for “store closing” sales to see if your local store is affected.
1,000 stores is a lot, but then there are more than 8,000 Family Dollar stores across the country and about as many Dollar Trees as well. So the closures represent a significant move that will leave many empty storefronts in communities across the country. But the company hopes that jettisoning stores that are beyond saving will help boost the performance of the remaining Family Dollar stores and put the company on better financial footing.
Family Dollar has been something of a problem child ever since Dollar Tree acquired it nearly a decade ago. It seemed like a great idea on paper, combining two discount chains with similar but distinct formats – Dollar Tree’s “everything’s a dollar” (later $1.25 and up) treasure-hunt format, and Family Dollar’s focus on a broader range of everyday household essentials. “By offering both fixed-price and multi-price point formats and an even broader, more compelling merchandise assortment, we will be able to provide even greater value and choice to a wider array of customers,” Dollar Tree’s then-CEO said at the time of the merger.
But the new owner has never really been able to burnish Family Dollar’s image. While Dollar Tree generally appeals to suburban shoppers looking for good finds, and competitor Dollar General caters to a largely rural clientele with its general-store approach, Family Dollars are often located in lower-income areas and its stores are simply not as well-stocked, well-shopped or well-run.
So Dollar Tree has been on a multi-year campaign to fix up Family Dollar. Most recently, in 2022, it launched an effort to lower prices, improve product selection, spiff up stores and relaunch Family Dollar’s digital coupon program. The company took another step toward that last goal just last week, when Family Dollar announced it was teaming up with Ibotta to incorporate its offers into a “next generation digital offer program.”
But with inflation taking a bite out of Family Dollar shoppers’ budgets, the company has been suffering despite the improvements. It reported a alarming loss of $1.71 billion this past quarter – much of that attributed to Family Dollar, whose sales per store dropped 1.2% as compared to a 6.3% rise at Dollar Tree.
“By eliminating a bunch of underperforming stores, which take the bulk of the district managers’ time, we can now focus them on the stores that are doing better,” Dreiling said.
So tough times for Family Dollar shoppers have resulted in tough times for Family Dollar itself. If your local store ends up closing, the good news is that the stores that remain will be much improved – and after nearly a decade of work on the company’s part to fix Family Dollar, this time, they really mean it.
Image source: Family Dollar
So many of the Family Dollar stores I go into are so trashy. It comes across like the employees just don’t care. Perhaps they don’t have enough staff to clean & put items on the shelves but the public shouldn’t have to see the problems. Should never have put Family Dollar & Dollar Tree together.
The Paterson NJ stores are disgusting.